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Mesh Cute X215 HD review

in Desktop PCs

Verdict

A lot of PC for the money, but it's too noisy to be considered a serious contender for the living room

Review Date: 1 Sep 2009

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Price when reviewed: £347 (£399 inc VAT)

Overall Rating
4 stars out of 6

Features & Design
4 stars out of 6

Value for Money
4 stars out of 6

Performance
4 stars out of 6

Details
Part Code Cute X215 HD
Review Date 1 Sep 2009
Price ex VAT £347
Price inc VAT £399
Overall rating 4 stars out of 6
Performance 4 stars out of 6
Features & Design 4 stars out of 6
Value for Money 4 stars out of 6
Warranty
Warranty 1 yr return to base
Basic specifications
Total hard disk capacity 320
RAM capacity 2.00GB
Screen size N/A
Processor
CPU family AMD Athlon
CPU nominal frequency 2.70GHz
CPU overclocked frequency N/A
Processor socket AM3
HSF (heatsink-fan) AMD Low-profile
Motherboard
Motherboard J&W Minix 780G-SP128M
Motherboard chipset AMD 780G
Conventional PCI slots free 0
Conventional PCI slots total 0
PCI-E x16 slots free 0
PCI-E x16 slots total 1
PCI-E x8 slots free 0
PCI-E x8 slots total 0
PCI-E x4 slots free 0
PCI-E x4 slots total 0
PCI-E x1 slots free 0
PCI-E x1 slots total 0
Internal SATA connectors 4
Internal SAS connectors 0
Internal PATA connectors 1
Internal floppy connectors 0
Wired adapter speed 1,000Mbits/sec
Memory
Memory type DDR2
Memory sockets free 0
Memory sockets total 2
Hard disk
Hard disk Samsung HD322HJ
Capacity 320GB
Hard disk usable capacity 298GB
Internal disk interface SATA/300
Spindle speed 7,200RPM
Cache size 16MB
Hard disk 2 make and model N/A
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity N/A
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity N/A
Hard disk 2 spindle speed N/A
Hard disk 2 cache size N/A
Hard disk 3 make and model N/A
Hard disk 3 nominal capacity N/A
Hard disk 4 make and model N/A
Hard disk 4 nominal capacity N/A
Drives
Optical drive Lite-On iHES106
Optical disc technology Blu-ray reader
Optical disk 2 make and model N/A
Optical disk 3 make and model N/A
Graphics card
Graphics card N/A
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? no
3D performance setting Low
Graphics chipset ATI Radeon HD 3200
Graphics card RAM 1.00GB
DVI-I outputs 1
HDMI outputs 1
VGA (D-SUB) outputs 1
DisplayPort outputs 0
Number of graphics cards 1
Monitor
Monitor make and model N/A
Resolution screen horizontal N/A
Resolution screen vertical N/A
Resolution N/A x N/A
Pixel response time N/A
Contrast ratio N/A
Screen brightness N/A
DVI inputs 0
HDMI inputs 0
VGA inputs 0
DisplayPort inputs 0
Rear ports
USB ports (downstream) 8
eSATA ports 1
PS/2 mouse port yes
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports 1
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports 1
Modem no
3.5mm audio jacks 6
Additional Peripherals
Speakers 0
Speaker type 0
Sound card Realtek HD audio
Peripherals N/A
Case
Chassis Mesh Cute
Case format Mini ITX
Dimensions 200 x 301 x 171mm (WDH)
Power supply
Power supply CFI KT-T150FXS-06A
Power supply rating 150W
Free drive bays
Free front panel 5.25in bays 0
Front ports
Front panel USB ports 2
Front panel memory card reader no
Mouse & Keyboard
Mouse and keyboard Logitech Deluxe 660 Cordless desktop
Operating system and software
OS family Windows Vista
Recovery method Recovery disc
Software supplied Cyberlink BD Solution
Noise and power
Idle power consumption 75W
Peak power consumption 112W
Performance tests
Overall application benchmark score 1.16
Office application benchmark score 1.07
2D graphics application benchmark score 1.37
Encoding application benchmark score 1.15
Multitasking application benchmark score 1.07
3D performance (crysis) low settings 22fps
3D performance setting Low
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User comments

Thank you!

Been waiting for you guys to review this!

Asked Mesh about the specs, but the sales bod "Dave" just didn't have a clue!

Can I please ask you to re-confirm that it does indeed have optical SPDIF out on the rear? Even after all my questions (wherein I pointed them in the correct direction re the mobo) I was told "no, it doesn't have any kind of optical audio out"!

The sound of the fans could put me off, but Mesh have an open case policy, so I might be tempted to just swap the fans for something quieter!

Looking to get one as a replacement for my Revo (not enough ooomph at 1920*1080) that could also double up as a media store - upgrade to 1Tb and use the esata to add an extra 2Tb.

By bioreit on 1 Sep 2009

Where they at?

Hello again.

Was just about to bite the bullet and buy the low-end Mesh Cute (on the basis that as it would be based in the bedroom, I could live without the Optical SPDIF if it happened not to have it) and lo and behold, the entire Mesh Cute range has been removed from the site!

Tried getting in touch with Mesh, but no response yet. Wonder if PC Pro would have any better luck?

By bioreit on 4 Sep 2009

Mesh cute on QVC

I saw this on QVC yesterday and they had lots for sale as well as an expert from Mesh to extol its virtues. I thought of buying one but held back until I read more so thanks for the info about the fans. Can PC Pro suggest alternatives?

By slueth50 on 6 Sep 2009

Too risky if there are any problems

Interesting idea, but too risky, given MESH's poor reliability and customer service track record. Any problems and I'd lose too much.

By tquinlan on 6 Oct 2009

Where is my PC?

Mesh have now had by £2,000 PC in repair for 7 weeks now and are not responding to any attempts to contact them.

Given this, I'd steer well clear of them.

By djoharrow on 8 Oct 2009

Different experiences

I've got two Mesh PCs for personal use now (and 3 at work) and although I've had some minor issues with them, I wouldn't say anything was a deal breaker. My first PC made an awful racket on arrival - suspecting maybe a broken case fan, went on the forums and got the go-ahead to pop the case open and have a look. A cable had fallen on top of the fan and was making the sound - moved it out the way and all was fine.

The other one is fine (a Cute as reviewed) and is very noisy, but I'm in the process of upgrading the PSU to a fanless one.

Mesh do seem to have a bad rep, but no worse than the catalogue of issues we get with our Tier 1 manufactured devices at work (Dell, Toshiba, HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, etc) and at least the open-case warranty means minor things can be resolved quickly.

I wouldn't recommend Mesh for anyone who's not tech savvy, but those who are, they tend to be noisy but worth it, in my experiences.

By bioreit on 14 Oct 2009

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